1st Grade
Matisse study

Henri Matisse

French artist Henri Matisse is known for creating a variety of art masterpieces. It was his desire to create art that was pleasing to look at and to give the viewer a calm, peaceful feeling, much like a comfortable arm chair.

First Grade worked with different art media while creating their Henri Matisse inspired fish bowls: printing, drawing, painting, and construction.   They discovered his use of bright colors and his love for paper collages. 

        Students enjoyed learning the shaving cream print method by mixing watercolor into shaving cream and swirling the watercolor around with a stylus.  Students then pressed their fish bowl against the shaving cream and when the shaving cream was removed it left the color swirls printed on their paper.

        After exploring different botanicals in nature they drew large leaves and flowers on their background paper.  They colored their backgrounds with bright oil pastels like a “Wild Beast” just like what Henri Matisse was called by art critics for using bright colors.

        Each class formed a different fish using different art mediums.  One class used Shrink-A-Dink and the other developed foil reliefs.  Both classes used a variety of lines and created different patterns to add a decorative finish to their fish.